Duncan Hood now editor of Report on Business magazine

Duncan Hood, has been appointed editor of Report on Business Magazine and director of features for the Report on Business newspaper section at the Globe and Mail.

Hood is well-known in magazine circles as former director of personal finance and editor of MoneySense at Rogers Publishing, as editor-in-chief of Canadian Business magazine and as a senior editor at Maclean's.He moved to The Globe as deputy director of editorial products for ROB in May 2015, led a reworking of the Globe’s strategy for editorial newsletters and the launch of the new Globe Investor newsletter and the new real estate hub, which opened for business in April and garnered nearly 2.4-million page views in its first two months.

Andrew Douglas of Halifax's Frank magazine* has been charged with breaching a publication ban related to a case of the murder of a police officer. In a National Post story, Douglas says it's "absolutely ridiculous" and that he intends to fight it, all the way to the Supreme Court if necessary.

The story was about the death of Catherine Campbell and ban was on all evidence presented at a preliminary hearing. Christopher Calvin Garnier is charged with second-degree murder in the death of Campbell, who had served as a Truro police constable for six years before her death.

Douglas said his story was researched, written and published ahead of the publication ban and was based on a document not obtained through the court process.

“It was published before the ban,” Douglas said. “We put the story on the website at 9:30 or 10 o’clock in the morning on July 11 and that publication ban didn’t go into effect until later in the morning or even the afternoon.”

*The Halifax Frank is a separate publication from the Ottawa-based Frank.

Wednesday, July 27, 2016

Beth Hitchcock steps in as editor-in-chief of House & Home

Beth Hitchcock

After 8 years as editor of Canadian House & Home magazine, Suzanne Dimma is stepping down, to be replaced by Beth Hitchcock who has had a career as a freelance writer and executive editor at two of Canada's major consumer magazines -- Chatelaine and House & Home as well as being published at such magazines as Style at Home, Cottage Life and Fresh Juice; in an item on her blog, she said

"Beth estimates that she’s written 75+ design articles in the last five years. Related skills include: knowing the difference between a kilim and a dhurrie, reciting the Farrow & Ball paint deck by heart and spotting Eames knockoffs at 50 paces."

Suzanne Dimma had been the home design director for St. Joseph Media's Wish, Gardening Life and Canadian Family in 2008 when she took up the position of editor at Canadian House & Home.

Quote, unquote: Grandma, what a big e-audience you have

“In the same way that a year ago everyone and their grandmother had a podcast, now everyone has an email newsletter,” he said. “They’re a way to reach people beyond publishing content on your website, and there is an audience of people who prefer to get stuff this way.”

-- David Topping, digital strategy and product manager for St. Joseph Media, talking withMarketing magazine about The Hunt, a new email newsletter about real estate from Toronto Life magazine.

PETS Magazine changes owners after 30 years and moves to New Brunswick

PETS magazine, which was sold by Simmons Publishing earlier this month to Dorman Sales & Marketing, will be moving to Moncton, New Brunswick. Editorial and art team members were not expected to change, but a new, Ontario-based ad sales director has been appointed and the magazine will continue to be printed in Ontario. According to a post on Mastheadonline, the new owners are David and Sharron Dorman.

“Our goal is to give pet owners a one-stop shop for information on keeping their beloved pets happy and healthy,” David Dorman said. “We plan on complementing the high-quality magazine and its proud 30-year history with an expanded digital presence, and we look forward to taking PETS Magazine to the next level.”

The magazine currently distributes through veterinary clinics and has a readership of 70,000.

Tuesday, July 26, 2016

St. Joseph scoops two key players from ELLE Canada; Noreen Flanagan takes over at FASHION

St. Joseph Media has scooped two key executives from the TVA Group's ELLE Canada. magazine.Noreen Flanagan, until now the editor in chief of ELLE Canada has been appointed editor in chief of FASHION magazine. She will be responsible for the brand across all platforms, including print, digital, social, video and branded events.

Noreen Flanagan

Flanagan's tenure at ELLE Canada included being named editor of the year by the Canadian Society of Magazine Editors (CSME) and the title was also named magazine of the year for 2015. Among numerous innovative co-branded multi-platform initiatives reported in a release were ELLE Canada Closet and the first “shoppable videos” in the Canadian magazine market. She also launched the first live cover shoots, the first ELLE Canada drone fashion shoot and the first cover shot in virtual reality, all of which garnered international media attention.

Steven Kawalit is appointed to the role of digital director, women’s brands, overseeing St. Joseph's portfolio of women’s brands across all digital and mobile platforms, including FASHION, Men’s FASHION,

Steven Kawalit

Weddingbells, Mariage Québec, GLOW, Pure and Canadian Family. He had been digital director of ELLE Canada, where he helped build a metrics-driven editorial team focused on using storytelling, digital analytics and emerging social trends as levers for audience growth. With over 10 years experience, he has conceptualized and implemented comprehensive online marketing programs for Microsoft, eBay, BMO and CapitalOne.

“We are delighted to welcome Noreen and Steven to St. Joseph Media. They will be integral to the transformation of our women’s brands, leveraging the insights and growth pioneered by Strategic Content Labs,” said Douglas Knight, president of St Joseph Media.

Both Noreen and Steve will report to Jacqueline Loch, vice-president & group publisher, women’s group (who herself only recently joined St. Joe's), and are starting with the company on August 8.

A Montreal-based French language humour magazine, Safarir, has ceased after almost 40 years of publishing humorous comic strips, parodies and illustrations. According to a Montreal Gazette story, the reasons for the closure after 299 issues were primarily financial.

The team for the humour magazine said Monday on Facebook that the “grand adventure” had ended, citing the bankruptcy of their distributor last year and large printing costs, coupled with a sharp decline in advertising revenues.

The team also affirmed that alternatives to the termination of their activities were “envisioned and seriously studied, but did not lead to adequate and concrete solutions.” They said they worked hard over the course of the past two years, to help Safarir thrive, grow and renew itself.

The monthly magazine's name was a play on the words "safari" and "ca fait rire"(it makes you laugh".)

Monday, July 25, 2016

Some British magazine publishers find they make more money from selling access to their digital archives than they did via the Apple iTunes store. A story in Press Gazette quoted digital magazine specialist Exact Editions the revenue strategy.

“A large proportion of our partners’ magazines are earning more from institutional subscriptions than they are from app sales in iTunes. It is an important market, not to be neglected,” said managing director of Exact Editions Daryl Rayner.

The company scans archived editions into a searchable database and offers premium subscriptions for a fee to institutions, schools, corporations and universities around the world. Such access can cost a university up to £800 a year. Last month it launched digital archives for Opera magazine (over 800 issues since 1950) and Geographical (94 issues since 1935). Other titles it is working with include: Gramophone, The Literary Review, Hali, Prospect, Dazed & Confused, The Numismatist, When Saturday Comes, The World of Fine Wine and Resurgence.

Jill Tamaki, a Canadian comic artist now living and working in New York, recently won a 2016 Will Eisner Comic Industry award according to a post published by Quill and Quire. It was for a collection of her web comic for teens called SuperMutant Magic Academy, published between 2010 to 2015 by Drawn and Quarterly, the Montreal-based publisher.

The awards, which were launched in 1988, are named for the creator of The Spirit and are considered the Oscars of the comic industry. They were presented July 22 at the San Diego Comic-Con.

Nova Scotia–based Kate Beaton was awarded Best Humor Publication for Step Aside, Pops: A Hark! A Vagrant Collection (Drawn & Quarterly), also a compilation of comics originally published on the web, lampooning various historical figures and events.

Tamaki and Beaton’s publisher, Drawn & Quarterly took home an additional award for Best Anthology for the Tom Devlin–edited Drawn and Quarterly: Twenty-five Years of Contemporary Cartooning, Comics, and Graphic Novels.

Vietnamese-born Dustin Nguyen won the Eisner for Best Painter/Multimedia Artist for Image Comics’ Descender, written by Toronto’s Jeff Lemire.

Friday, July 22, 2016

Competition is a good thing; the more the merrier. So the announcement this week that a group of authors is soon launching an online literary journal called the Hamilton Review of Books is a capital G good thing.

It is to be published by an editorial group is comprised of writers, editors, reviewers, and academics from the Hamilton area. These include: editor-in-chief, Dana Hansen, a writer, critic and professor in the English department at Humber College, where she was editor-in-chief of the Humber Literary Review; senior editors Rhonda Dynes, a writer, reviewer and professor at Mohawk College, Sally Cooper, novelist (Tell Everything) and frequent contributor to literary magazines, Krista Foss, a novelist (Smoke River) whose essay writing has been nominated for a National Magazine Award and Jessica Rose, Director of Programming for gritLIT: Hamilton’s Readers and Writers Festival, a Living Arts blogger for the Hamilton Arts Council, and she writes "Shelf Life," Hamilton Magazine's books column.

Down the street, so to speak, there is the longer-established HA&L magazine (Hamilton Arts & Letters), founded in 2008 by Paul Lisson, Fiona Kinsella, Peter Stevens and Vikram Bondai. The biannual magazine is devoted to presenting new literary works, graphic novel excerpts, exploratory writing, poetry, literary non-fiction, and the work of visual, audio, and film artists. It is operated by a collective who are dedicated to producing a high-quality arts and letters publication, and are committed to supporting an innovative and burgeoning arts community. It is the co-founder of the Short Works Prize for Hamilton-area authors. It is sustained by a paid membership of about 100 individuals. (HA&L had the distinction of being the first digital literary magazine funded by the Ontario Arts Council. )

Thursday, July 21, 2016

Rogers Communications reports for its 2nd quarter a 6% revenue increase for media, largely attributed to Sportsnet and the success of the Toronto Blue Jays. But, according to a company release, there was a 7% increase in costs in the quarter in the media division (which includes magazines), compared with the same quarter last year, largely due to lower advertising across radio, publishing and broadcast TV. Operating expenses were attributed to highers sports-related costs, mitigated by cost savings from job cuts in conventional broadcast TV and radio.

Year to date, the 29% decrease in revenue were primarily a result of lower conventional advertising revenue in the first quarter of 2016. [Click to enlarge]

"The guide provides detailed promotional strategies, insightful personal testimony and plenty of other useful resources to help award winners and nominees best leverage and optimize their National Magazine Awards."

In addition to the guide, the foundation has released a webinar that grew out of a discussion in November called the Winners' Circle (which I moderated) and in which three NMA winners–Penny Caldwell of Cottage Life, Matthew Blackett of Spacing and Katherine Laidlaw of The Walrus–shared their best practices on how to capitalize on their recognition of winning a National Magazine Award.

Wednesday, July 20, 2016

Neville Gilfoy of Progress Media Group has died

Neville Gilfoy

[This post has been updated] Neville Gilfoy, the founder, president and CEO of Progress Media Group of Halifax and publisher of Progress Magazine, died on Tuesday after a short illness. (Funeral will probably be Saturday; more when known.)[Update: see below]

Gilfoy received the Foundation Award for Outstanding Achievement in 2006, the highest honour that can be bestowed by the National Magazine Awards Foundation.

Progress magazine was founded in 1993 to promote the creation of wealth in the region through profitable business growth and Gilfoy made no secret of it, indeed it was one of his passions. He developed events with the magazine group that celebrated achievement, such as the Fastest Growing Companies, Best Places to Work and the Progress 101 about the biggest and best companies in the region

Gilfoy was well known as a publisher, writer, publishing mentor and consultant and general friend of the industry, both in the Atlantic Canada and across the country. He usually pronounced himself ready when called on by Magazines Canada or other industry organizations to teach, present or talk about publishing.

He was a partner with Jim Gourlay, now co-publisher of Saltscapes Magazine, in a publication called Eastern Woods & Waters before leaving to start up Progress.

As a veteran of the industry he was a passionate advocate for the revitalization of Atlantic Canada's economy. He spoke frequently about it and wrote about it in his own and other publications. He was Chair of the Atlantic Provinces Chambers of Commerce, the Greater Halifax Partnership, the Atlantic council, and the Dartmouth General Hospital’s Capital Campaign and was awarded an honourary degree as doctor of civil law from Saint Mary's University. He was the Honourary Consul of France for Nova Scotia, where he works closely with senior officials of the French government in Canada.

He was named a 2008 Rotary International Paul Harris fellow for his humanitarian work in West Africa where he was actively involved in building schools, wells and health clinics in Burkina Faso and Niger.

[Update: Visitation at St Peters Church, 10 Maple Street Dartmouth, from 2:00-4:00 and 7:00-9:00 p.m. on Friday, July 22. Funeral at St. Peters church as well, on Saturday, July 23 at 10 am with reception to follow in the church hall. In lieu of flowers, donations in Neville’s memory may be made to Dartmouth General Hospital Foundation. Online condolences by visiting www.dartmouthfuneralhome.ca.]Death notice, Dartmouth Funeral Home

Tuesday, July 19, 2016

Janine Vangool, the publisher and editor of UPPERCASE magazine, has decided to do away with advertising in the magazine altogether. It has always been reader-supported publication (disclosure: I am and have been one of its loyal subscribers.)But advertiser support that was expected/anticipated has been slow in coming and, given that Vangool is a one-woman show, she lacks the resources to sell even the "calling card" ads for small creative businesses in the back of the magazine. She told her readers in her regular e-letter:

"Just think about how advertising and sponsored posts and paid content have changed over the past 7 years... As a single person on editorial, design and marketing duty, I simply don't have the time to craft content for advertisers (nor do I want to be influenced in that way). So I've decided to remove ads from UPPERCASE altogether. Freeing up more time for me, and more pages of content for you."

The decision came soon after she recently took a week off.

"It wasn't a complete break, but enough of time away from my laptop and work worries to return with some fresh perspectives and new ideas (oh no! more ideas! ha ha)."

One of the many initiatives of Spacing magazine that has earned it high regard is its nurturing of the Jane Jacobs Prize, which was presented this week. Each recipient receives $3,000 each year for three years, to be spent in any way they choose. In addition, Current and past prize recipients are invited to meet together to discuss their experiences and knowledge of what makes Toronto work.

This year's winners are Leslie Chudnovsky and Luke Anderson who have devoted their lives to advocating for a more inclusive and accessible city. Anderson created the StopGap Foundation, which provides ramps to street level businesses in Toronto and across Canada in order to overcome the "one-step problem" that restricts access to people with mobility issues. Chudnovsky has worked since 2000 as an organizer for Supporting Our Youth (SOY), a support program for queer and trans youth operated out of the Sherbourne Health Centre in Toronto

The Jane Jacobs Prize celebrates individuals who contribute to the fabric of Toronto life in unique ways that exemplify the ideas of urban visionary and activist Jane Jacobs. The award was created in 1997, financed by Avana Capital and it 2014 Spacing took over the administration of the award and the selection of its winners.

Monday, July 18, 2016

Meredith Corporation is investing in a major way in making its magazine content available in video. It is executing a dedicated video strategy that will make use of content from its premium publishing brands, including Martha Stewart Living/Martha Stewart Weddings, Better Homes and Gardens, Parents, Shapeand Allrecipes. Already, according to a story in Publishing Executive, Martha Stewart Living has led the way as the first publication to go live via Facebook and a single broadcast about Easter egg decorating reached an audience of over 1 million and generated 14,000 user engagements. The company has created an entire studio in its New York City offices dedicated to new format production and it is also shooting live videos in Des Moines and Seattle.

“While many players are just starting to experiment with live video and virtual reality, Meredith already has its expertise and strategy in place and is executing against it,” said Melinda Lee, SVP/GM, Meredith Video. “Having the right technology is a critical part of our strategy, and something we are heavily invested in, from custom-built cameras to our state-of-the-art studios to the expertise we’ve developed within our 30-person video production team to create new, immersive experiences for our audience.”

Hired as an intern at The Walrus magazine in 2007 and rising rapidly to be the magazine's managing editor, Jared Bland's career trajectory has been since then steeply upward. He became a senior editor at the House of Anansi then was named in March 2013 as the Globe and Mail's books editor and, a year later, its arts editor. Now he has jumped to the publishing side, so to speak, having been named publisher of McClelland and Stewart and vice-president of Penguin Random House Canada. As such, he is also responsible for Hazlitt, the PRH online magazine.

Thursday, July 14, 2016

A few weeks ago we wrote about a colouring cover from Cottage Life magazine. Now we're seeing one on the July/August cover of Faith Today. There are similarities -- readers colour the outline image and upload the result -- and differences -- in Cottage Life's case, the cover is a sponsored gatefold while in Faith Today's case, it is the actual cover.Faith Today readers' entries qualify them for a random draw for a devotional book. Cottage Life readers with their entry will be selected by a panel to receive a set of candles from the magazine's branded merchandise lineup. The complete Faith Today issue is available online.

Wednesday, July 13, 2016

Magazines Canada has reminded its members that all magazines are required to deposit two copies of each new title or new edition with Library and Archives Canada under its Legal Deposit Program. The requirement has been in place since 1965 for serial publications.

It's early days to come to any conclusions, but a talked-about (talked about = more than gossip, less than an established fact) merger of the giant Chicago-based printer RR Donnelley & Sons with Xerox Corporation could have far-reaching impacts on the magazine publishing industry. The news lifted the shares of both companies. Xerox had a market value of US$9.6 billion and Donnelly US$3.9 billion. Both companies have been struggling with the disruption of the physical printing world as a result of mobile and cloud-based services.

Donnelly, which had said it was planning to split its business in three publicly traded parts, has not done so yet. Xerox,best known as a virtual synonym for photocopying, said in January that it would split into a document technology company (printers and copiers) with $11 billion in revenue and a business process outsourcing company with $7 billion.

"The company (Xerox) been trying to turn itself around," said a story in Fortune, "shifting focus to software and services as corporate customers cut printing costs and consumers moved to mobile devices."

The merger would be likely to result in parts of Donnelly being folded into the two Xerox-derived companies.

Monday, July 11, 2016

Jacqueline Loch to lead St. Joseph women's group; Lilia Lozinski leaving company

St. Joseph Media is consolidating the management of its women's group, appointing Jacqueline Loch as vice-president and group publisher overseeing FASHION, Men’s FASHION, Weddingbells, Mariage Québec, GLOW, Pure and Canadian Family. As a result of the decision it was announced that Lilia Lozinski will be leaving the company, stepping down from her role as senior vice-president women’s group since 2008, responsible for all of SJM's women's magazines. Duncan Clark, vice president strategic development, will assume responsibility for the women’s group branded and custom events.Loch has been vice president content solutions for the past 11 months, where she worked closely with Strategic Content Labs and St. Joseph’s portfolio of cross platform media brands.

Friday, July 08, 2016

A couple of weeks ago we reported that Briarpatch magazine of Regina was on its uppers; it was suffering a financial crisis (the kind that would be recognized by many other indy magazines.) So they asked for help from readers and, specifically, $15,000. Well, a recent posting on the magazine's blog reports it did better than that, and now has received more than $18,000 in donations and is within casting distance of $25,000. Many donations were "sustaining" which will provide the magazine with almost $500 more a month. As a result, it intends to double contributor rates by its November/December issue.

"You’ve set a clear expectation for us: you want us not only to survive, but to thrive." said Tanya Andrusieczko and Rhiannon Ward, editor and publisher. "The important work of seeking out and telling stories from the front lines of social struggles will shine brighter with fairer contributor pay and robust strategy to reach more readers hungry for brave journalism. Thank you for your confidence in us and for your commitment to grassroots media."

Thursday, July 07, 2016

[This post has been updated] Brinda Luckoo, a respected leader of consumer magazine marketing at Rogers Media has been appointed as executive vice-president, media services, with the digital business solutions company Equisoft. Luckoo was with Rogers for 15 years, there managing the circulation of some of the largest consumer and b2b magazine in Canada, including acquisition and retention activities for all consumer brands such as Chatelaine, Maclean’s and Hello! Canada. She was also responsible for the launch of Texture, the "all you can read digital subscription service. [Update: Luckoo was one of a number of people laid off in February by Rogers.] At Equisoft, she will be responsible for overseeing the enhancement of, among other things, Publishing Elements, a suite of tools designed to help publishers and media companies to optimize their revenue streams and manage audience, content and subscriptions.

Tuesday, July 05, 2016

Legion magazine July/August issue (on newsstands now) features a cover story by John Boileau about Canada's first black battalion and the struggle of its members to be allowed to fight in the First World War.Despite offical government policy, commanders often refused to have "coloured" soldiers into their command. After considerable lobbying, a black unit was authorized in Nova Scotia. But the No. 2 Construction Battalion though it went to Europe, was tasked not with fighting, but bulding and repairing trenches, bridges and railways and doing forestry work.